]]>Pipeline politics in Virginia have become critical issues in the 2017 governor’s race amid concerns that projects in the state could pose environmental and public health risks.

Two natural gas pipelines are on track to be built in the state by energy companies in the coming years, the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline. But some living in counties affected by the projects are pressuring legislators to oppose the pipelines or at least slow down the approval process.

Pipeline opponents like Dr. Tina Smusz, a retired physician, and fellow members of local environmental watchdog Preserve Montgomery County Virginia and other grassroots environmental and anti-pipeline groups are driving long distances to speak at public hearings in Richmond and other parts of the state. They’re worried that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which will review the pipelines’ potential impact on water quality and wetlands, has ceded too much control to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for approving permits where the pipelines would cross bodies of water—and that the state is not looking after the welfare of its citizens.

“I would think the average person doesn’t think of the health threat of a pipeline, except that it could explode,” Smusz said in a phone interview with Rewire. “People all along the pipeline route, especially these large, high-pressure lines, are at high risk.”

Smusz wrote an analysis in 2015 detailing her opinion about the potential health effects associated with exposure to chemicals that may be a part of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. It said that fracked methane gas would come across porous karst geology, which is particularly vulnerable to groundwater pollution.

Chemicals could seep into groundwater and pollute wells, or react with radon underground, Smusz told Rewire. Because companies are allowed to keep fracking chemicals private to maintain an economic advantage, community members wouldn’t know what they’re dealing with, she added.

Many who live in western Virginia, through which the proposed pipeline would run, rely on wells, which, unlike public water systems, are not regularly tested for water quality. That means contamination could go undetected for years. Smusz said that the average cost of an examination to test for water quality on an individual home site is about $2,700 in Montgomery County. With an annual median household income of $46,663 in 2015 and roughly one in five people in the county living below the poverty line, this cost is too high for many families.

Kathy Attar, toxics program manager for Physicians for Social Responsibility, told Rewire that chemicals in plastics and fracking fluids “can mimic hormones and disrupt the [endocrine] system—they can cause health problems.”

Fetuses are especially vulnerable, Attar added, because exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals can cause birth defects and delayed neurological development. It can also interfere with fertility and sometimes pregnancy.

And because of the secrecy involved in the fracking process, independent scientists cannot test the fracking liquids’ effects, including what happens when they are exposed to heat or other chemicals.

In short, Attar said, “we’re in the dark about a lot of these things.”

Perhaps the most explosive element in the debate over the pipelines are the years of campaign donations made to both Republicans and Democrats by Dominion Energy. The Richmond-based energy company leads the consortium that would build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion project that proponents say would bring 8,800 jobs to Virginia.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and Republican opponent Ed Gillespie have both accepted funds from the energy giant. Northam also owns Dominion stock, although he said he would put all of his stock holdings in a blind trust if elected and has reportedly recused himself from voting on tie-breaking bills related to Dominion in the state senate in his capacity as lieutenant governor.

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, Northam’s defeated primary opponent, is the main reason the pipelines have become a big issue for Northam and other Democrats. A self-identified progressive who served one term in Congress before being defeated by a Tea Party conservative in 2010 after his vote for the Affordable Care Act, Perriello made his opposition to the pipelines one of his signature issues earlier this year when he declared that he would not accept funding from Dominion. Other Democrats have followed suit, including Justin Fairfax, who is running to be the state’s lieutenant governor.

Despite his loss, Perriello’s anti-pipeline stance continues to ripple through the general election as many progressives vocally object to Northam’s stance. During the general election’s first candidate debate in July, a young man interrupted the lieutenant governor’s opening remarks, shouting “No pipeline!” as he was removed from the ballroom.

Northam said during the debate that he will follow the recommendations of the DEQ in determining if he will support the pipelines and declared that he is against fracking in Virginia as well as offshore drilling. Gillespie, on the other hand, said he is in favor.

Last week in an email to Rewire, Northam’s press secretary, Ofirah Yheskel, expanded the candidate’s views on the issue. “Dr. Northam has always said he wants DEQ’s evaluation to be rigorous, based in science, transparent, and to make sure that Virginia takes care of people’s property rights,” said Yheskel. “He believes the facts should dictate the outcome, and his position has not changed.”

David Paylor, DEQ’s director, acknowledges that the process for the pipelines’ approval is complex. He spoke with Rewire by phone about the state’s certification processes for both projects. Paylor explained that his department will decide this fall whether to approve Section 401 certifications for both projects, as part of the federal Clean Water Act. Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has jurisdiction over the interstate routes, which can be approved before the DEQ issues its recommendations.

The DEQ is taking public comments through October 13, and Paylor said his department will make recommendations sometime in the fall. He’s not sure if it will be before or after the election.

“Our statutory requirement is to make sure a project complies with the laws and the regulations of the commonwealth,” Paylor said. “We’re doing that independent of this governor.”

Nevertheless, the pipeline issue continues to affect the gubernatorial race as some anti-pipeline advocates threaten to sit out the election unless Northam changes his position and opposes the projects outright. With the Trump administration loosening environmental restrictions, many environmentalists are taking their arguments to state-level politicians and regulators.

But despite the pipelines’ potential impact on pregnant women and fetuses, reproductive rights groups like NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and Planned Parenthood’s Virginia chapter have not yet jumped into the debate about the projects.

In a recent email to Rewire, NARAL Virginia Executive Director Tarina Keene wrote, “We are particularly concerned with health care access for low income [people], women of color, and rural women, and how access directly impacts women’s economic security and their ability to fully and equally participate in society.”

She said that the group plans to issue a further statement about its platform later this summer, while noting that environmental issues are “outside our scope.”

Virginia League for Planned Parenthood spokesperson David Timberline said in a July phone interview that his organization was preparing to make its endorsements soon and would not be speaking about individual issues until later in the campaign season.

]]>Standing in the Way of a Gas Pipeline Project: Nuns and a Makeshift Chapelhttps://rewire.news/article/2017/07/12/standing-way-gas-pipeline-project-nuns-makeshift-chapel-built/
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 13:48:11 +0000https://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=104807"Oil and gas pipelines are extremely short-sighted and will continue to benefit only wealthy corporations."

]]>A small, wooden-slatted structure and an order of nuns drew more than 300 people on Sunday to the middle of a cornfield near Philadelphia.

The “Stand with the Sisters” protest opposes a natural gas pipeline project proposed through 37 miles of Lancaster County farms, waterways, and rural communities—including land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an international order of Catholic nuns.

The Oklahoma-based Williams Partners is seeking a right of way there for the 183-mile, $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Project (ASP). Protesters opposing the easement access came from across the nation and included area farmers, Mennonites from Lancaster, and the Sisters of Loretto from Kentucky who have fought similar battles in their communities, said Malinda Harnish Clatterbuck of Lancaster Against Pipelines, a grassroots organization that built the makeshift chapel.

“I feel like we have really strong community support. There are a lot of people who feel like this pipeline is an injustice,” Clatterbuck, associate pastor of the Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster and a board member of the Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, told Rewire.

The hope is to bring more attention to projects that put corporate profit over local lives and environmental rights, and eventually, to encourage legislators to change laws that “violate or exploit their constituents in order to give way for large corporations to make more money,” she said.

The hour-long ceremony included an interfaith dedication, a chorus of Amazing Grace, and people tying more than 250 ribbons on the 50-by-50 foot structure as symbols of intentional prayers or statements for the protection of the land.

A member of Lancaster Against Pipelines and a co-founder of Lancaster Action Now Coalition, an organization supporting and protecting marginalized communities, Schindler said she was proud to be a part of a dedicated group taking the road less traveled.

“I’m here to lend my voice and my support to the consecration of this land and to the people, the women, the men and the families, who have made it their mission to protect the earth and the water from those who value profit over our health, well-being and safety,” she said in her speech.

The nuns have refused to sign a lease. They believe the pipeline violates their commitment to environmental justice as reflected in their land ethic, which calls on them to “respect our interconnectedness and oneness with creation,” to “revere Earth as a sanctuary where all life is protected,” and “treasures land as a gift of beauty and sustenance and legacy for future generations.”

The project has been resisted for months, much in the vein of the #NoDAPL protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota. Fully operational on June 1, the 1,168-mile long, $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline has already leaked three times, threatening Native land and lives, according to a release from the Indigenous Environmental Network.

“This is foreboding as the company does not yet have a plan in place to address how they would contain and clean a serious spill,” Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in an email statement. “We will continue to battle the operation of this pipeline in court and remind everyone that just because the oil is flowing now doesn’t mean that it can’t be stopped. The courts can stop it by demanding that the administration be held accountable for the full Environmental Impact Statement it initiated and then abandoned.”

In a victory for the tribes, a federal judge last month ruled that the permits authorizing the pipeline took shortcuts and requested additional briefings on whether to shut down the pipeline.

In Pennsylvania, hopes ran high last week when a U.S. district judge refused to grant Williams immediate possession of the land. The Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. (Transco), a subsidiary of Williams, is taking the nuns to court July 17 in a quest to seize the property by eminent domain. Two state environmental permits are still pending, according to Lancaster Online.

Despite the Adorers’ refusal to cooperate, Transco has approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct the pipeline. Until a federal court order of eminent domain allows the company to remove the chapel from the easement, the structure remains and all are welcome to visit or worship there, Clatterbuck said.

Andrea Ferich, a Penn State graduate student and watershed specialist from Centre County, Pennsylvania who attended the action, told Rewire she is “deeply concerned” about the proposed 388 water body crossings of the pipeline and water security across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Oil and gaspipelinesare extremely short-sighted and will continue to benefit only wealthy corporations. The economic costs of the ASP are far more than the benefits. I am concerned for the thousands of residents within the incineration hazard zone of thispipeline, and the continued impacts of the nearly 3,000 miles of new and proposedpipelinesin Pennsylvania alone,” she said.

]]>Exclusive: Virginia’s Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates on Wage and Environmental Concerns, Part 3 (Annotated)https://rewire.news/article/2017/06/07/virginias-democratic-gubernatorial-candidates-on-wage-and-environmental-concerns/
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:01:50 +0000https://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=103845Former U.S. Congressman Tom Perriello and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam talk about pay equity, family leave, and health and environmental concerns in the third and final installment of our series of Q&As with the candidates running for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s June 13 gubernatorial primary.

]]>In the third and final installment of our series of Q&As with the candidates running for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s June 13 gubernatorial primary, we talk with former U.S. Congressman Tom Perriello and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam about pay equity, family leave, and health and environmental concerns.

Rewire sat down with Perriello and Northam in May to discussthe candidates’ platforms, their backgrounds, and what they think makes them the best candidate to represent Virginia. As with the first and second installments, this interview has been annotated to include additional context on some of the points mentioned by the candidates over the course of these conversations.

Former Congressman Tom Perriello

Rewire: As governor, what would you do to improve wages, not just in the aggregate, but for low-income people specifically?

TP: We are the first campaign in Virginia history to push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and that’s not picked randomly. And it’s not just aspirational—$28,000 a year is what that means. Our current minimum wage is a poverty wage.

The average minimum wage earner making $7.25 an hour—the minimum wage both federally and in Virginia—”working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year yields an annual income of only $15,080,” according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

In fact, most people, particularly most mothers, lose money by going to work for less than $28,000 a year because of child-care costs and transportation costs. In addition to that, we have called for and fully paid for in our tax reform plan eight weeks of paid family leave because we have far too many people, disproportionately women, whowill have to care for a sick kid or an aging parent and lose their job, which is then going to send them further down the wage scale. In addition to that, we need to push for pay equity. I voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in Congress.

Perriello released his tax reform plan in late April. According to his campaign’s website, the proposal “asks the very wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share, while cutting wasteful spending and eliminating loopholes and credits that overwhelmingly benefit those at the top, so the tax code can be fairer and generate revenues needed to make growth-oriented investments in middle and working class Virginians.”

We also need to look at some of these issues of salary transparency, where being asked your salary when you go into an interview can disproportionately affect women coming in with lower salaries to those jobs.

Rewire: Your paid family leave policy would “guarantee workers up to eight weeks of leave at two-thirds of their pay so they can care for a new child or a severely ill family member,” according to your campaign’s website. How would you work to put this policy in place?

TP: We need to really challenge the right on what it means to be pro-family. Some of the cultures in Europe that they’re most critical of frankly have policies that are much more pro-family than those who use that kind of rhetoric here, but stand against things that help cover families for the things they need most—which is to be able to afford to take a few days off and care for a kid, or these other issues of frankly making a living wage.

When it comes to these issues, we need to go straight into the red counties in Virginia and make the case for why paid medical leave is both pro-family andpro-growth. Ultimately, what happens is a lot of people drop out of the workforce, because the choice is don’t work at all or literally work in a job you cannot take a day off from. Then you’re going to end up not working. We’ve gone straight into red counties—of course, I represented a very conservative district in Virginia. We’ve taken half a dozen trips deep into coal country already on this campaign, and I think we’re seeing very changing attitudes in those places among at least rural conservatives. They want us to start treating addiction as a health problem and not a criminal problem. They want to see issues of paid medical leave and a living wage.

So I think part of how we do it is not to assume that far-right legislators are actually representing their constituents—we go straight to their constituents and make the case, and often they can then put pressure back and say, what the heck are you guys doing? This makes no sense to be blocking Medicaid expansion that is crucial for our working families as well as paid medical leave.

Rewire: So would you say there is a chance to get that through a Republican-dominated state legislature?

TP: Well of course my first hope is that it won’t be a Republican-dominated state legislature because we will have a wave election this year, but I absolutely reject the premise that we can’t get these things through a Republican legislature. I’ve just seen that when we give up our sense of what’s possible too quickly, then people ask the question: Why are we in this game at all if we’re not in it too make a difference?

I think that there is a sea change right now, on attitude, on a number of fronts, including criminal justice reform and paid medical leave. The concerns of so many families out there in red districts that are getting pinched between caring for kids that haven’t yet found employment and caring for aging parents. One of my concerns is, in a recent national poll, most Americans said that they think that Democrats only care about rich people. The fact of the matter is, when we go out and show that we are the ones caring very boldly for the ones struggling on the margins of the working and middle class, we do better with those voters, because often for reasons that may not be fair they think we only care about rich people.

Rewire: Northam’s paid family leave policy would offer a tax credit while yours would mandate a policy. Why did you decide on your policy?

TP: Right now we need real change, and not change around the margins. I think this is a bit of a generational shift; that those who sort of catered to, or are looking at this from an earlier era, it seems like basically things were working for the middle-class and we just needed to tweak around the edges for those who were falling behind. I think that unfortunately, for my generation, there is an understanding that actually the tectonics aren’t right. My father, who went through college, got a scholarship, did work-study, came out debt-free—that same kid today is going to come out with about $40,000 of debt and be told within five years that they are going to need a master’s degree to stay competitive and take on another $25,000 in debt. Those are the very years that you used to spend saving for a down-payment on a house and getting on a cycle of savings. Instead, we’re getting on a cycle of debt.

Same thing with the issues of employment today. If we pay a poverty wage of $14,000 a year and then tell people that if you miss two days of work, you’ve just lost the entire margin for paying your bills that month—so what do you do if you’re sick? What do you do if your kid is sick? Right now we need to have a plan that actually works for families. And my experience in negotiating with Republicans before and negotiating in conflict zones around the world is that we end up getting just as much resistance to half of a good idea as we do to a full good idea.

This is one of the reasons I thought the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should have been stronger and why I was excited to vote for the first version of the bill that included a public option. We would have got just as much hatred from the insurance companies. We would have gotten just as many votes from the Republicans, which is zero. But instead, we would have had a bill that was even stronger and would have shown a larger bending of the cost curve going forward. So I think we end up doing better over time when we stand up for things that can make a real difference.

Rewire: What would you say are the greatest health challenges that people in Virginia are facing right now?

TP: We have a range of issues. Certainly affordability [of health care] across the board, in part because Trump and the Republicans have continued to play games with the idea of getting rid of the ACA. We continue to have a lot of the working poor who are not covered because Medicaid expansion has not gone through. We continue to have a legacy of very restricted reproductive justice access: 92 percent of the counties in Virginia have no access to clinics or services and we still have laws on the books that require a woman to get a lecture first and wait 24-hours [for an abortion]. And if you’re in the working poor, that means you’re going to have to take those two days off of work, which again is not going to be paid for without the paid medical leave that we’re supportive of. So we need to try to get these bad laws off the books, we need to continue to try at least to lock new laws from coming on.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in Virginia “Most woman must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion, and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.”

As Perriello mentioned, in the state 92 percent of counties have no clinics providing abortion care.

We also have issues of access to mental health [care]. We’re hearing this more and more, and … we can build coalitions around this. One of the groups that has become the greatest advocates for addressing mental health has been law enforcement. Because law enforcement feels that too often they end up being the mental health providers of first resort in a situation that is already tragic.

Rewire: Another issue you differ from Lt. Gov. Northam on is the Dominion pipeline. Could you tell us why you don’t support that project?

The proposed Atlantic Coast pipeline would create an “underground 600-mile interstate natural gas transmission pipeline,” according to a November 2016 project overview. Four major U.S. energy companies are behind the effort—Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Southern Company Gas—though Dominion owns the largest stake in the pipeline.

A recently released report from the nonprofit Public Accountability Initiative found that Dominion “and its powerful CEO have used their deep pockets and political ties to advance their interests generally and around the pipeline.” That includes donations to candidates and politicians who support the project.

The report also found that “Key members of regulatory boards tasked with approving the pipeline in Virginia have backgrounds that raise conflict of interest concerns. For example, the Virginia DEQ’s Water Permitting Division Director was once a lawyer for Dominion, according to minutes from a county board meeting.”

“Opposition groups like Wild Virginia, Friends of Nelson County, Alleghany-Blue Ridge Alliance, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and the Virginia Sierra Club have pointed out a range of threats the ACP poses,” the report continues. “These include: endangerment of rare species and fragile habitats, water pollution, degradation of rural scenery, miles of ridgeline reduction (which some call a form of mountaintop removal), and noise and toxic chemicals emitted by compressors.”

As Perriello mentions here, a second fracked gas interstate pipeline—the Mountain Valley Pipeline—has also been proposed.

TP: We have two fracked gas pipelines proposed across Virginia that would cost $6.7 billion and take us exactly in the wrong direction right now. The future of energy is not fossil fuels. It’s clean energy and energy efficiency. And it’s not monopolies, it’s distributed power …. Dominion is not full of bad people, they just have a bad business model that’s stuck in the 1950s where their company gets to decide what the energy source is going to be, where it’s going to come from, whose land it’s going to go across, [and then] deliver it to your house, and tell you how much you pay for it. That’s not the century we’re living in right now. Betting $6.7 billion on these backwards investments is a little like being told right as digital cameras are taking off to bet your pension fund on Polaroid, Eastman Kodak. It’s just not where the future is going.

Virginia has lost tons of businesses and tons of jobs because businesses have too much power in Richmond [the capitol of the state]. Dominion is the biggest contributor to both political parties, including the Democratic Party in Richmond, and the result of that is we’re falling behind North Carolina on solar energy and we’re about to fall behind Maryland on wind energy, and it’s hurting our economy. I think it’s just a fundamental misunderstanding, not just of how big a threat climate change is, not just about the misuse of imminent domain for corporate profit, but also this fundamental question about whether we need more monopolies in our economy or do we need more small business in our economy.

Perriello has himself pledged not to take any campaign donations from Dominion Energy.

Lt Gov. Northam’s gubernatorial campaign has received over $24,000 from 2016 through 2017 from Dominion, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. He also owns stocks with the company.

If you actually allow distributed energy production, every single homeowner can become part of the new energy economy and so can every farmer. And the same way in Northern Virginia today that we unfortunately see a lot of public school teachers who are also Uber or Lyft drivers because they need a little more income, because we don’t pay them enough, we have a lot of farmers out there who have their primary crop, but if they could just make 20 percent more by having some solar or wind on their farm, that’s enough for them to stay in business. But they have to be able to sell it back to the grid to be able to do that, and the utilities are trying to block it. So this is a multi-billion-dollar bet in exactly the wrong direction when we need Virginia to be in on the path to the future.

Rewire: What would you say are the most critical environmental concerns that Virginia is facing?

TP: Unfortunately, it’s a long list. We are certainly particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. We have the second most vulnerable coastline after New Orleans in the Hampton Roads area. We’re already seeing flooding that’s disproportionately hurting communities of color, but also threatening our naval bases, which are key economic drivers in the region. So we need to do an enormous amount to deal with both climate mitigation and resilience.

Unfortunately as well, I think [EPA] Administrator Pruitt is probably the second scariest nominee in the Trump administration—which is saying a lot. We’re probably going to see systematic attacks on the basic protections of clean air and clean water over the next few years, and it’s going to be important for Virginia to have a governor who is ready to fill in gaps on research enforcement and the rest around basic clean air and clean water standards.

In addition to that, I think we do continue to have important issues of protecting land and rural heritage …. I think there’s a win-win here. I think there is an opportunity to localize some food production, some beverage production, and some energy production that will help hard-hit economic communities while putting us on a more sustainable path.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam

Rewire: Your campaign calls for “a tax credit to make it affordable for small businesses to allow full-time employees to take at least eight workweeks of paid parental leave.” Why do you support this policy over a guaranteed paid leave policy in the state?

RN: I can just tell you as a business owner, I am a part-owner, I co-founded the Children’s Specialty Group in Norfolk, and we employ about 250 people. So it’s important when women have a baby that they have paid family leave, because we want them back. If we don’t have them come back, that means we have to hire other people and retrain them, so we take good care of our employees and it’s important for them, for those who have babies or even for those who have a sickness, that their leave is paid for and that they’re allowed to come back once they have the desire to.

Rewire: But why a tax credit for businesses versus a mandate by the state that businesses have to do it?

Offering a tax credit to businesses who offer some paid family leave is an idea often pushed by Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in his failed bid for the White House. Many GOP plans, however, involve allowing for short lengths of time off. The Strong Families Act of 2017 introduced in February by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), for example, allowed businesses to get the tax credit for offering as little as two weeks off.

Critics of offering a tax credit to prompt businesses to offer paid family leave say that doing so may not motivate businesses that don’t already offer the benefit to begin doing so.

RN: I’m open to either one of those. I’m not firm. Again, it’s important at the end of the day to make sure we’re just allowing our families to have paid leave and be able to return to work when their illnesses are better or when they’re ready to come back after having a baby.

Rewire: Would your paid family leave policy then also include paid time off to care for a sick family member?

RN: Absolutely, that’s very important.

Rewire: As governor, what would you do to improve wages, not just in the aggregate, but for lower-income workers and families?

RN: One of the things that I have fought for, and I actually broke the tie two years ago as the lieutenant governor, was to raise minimum wage. There’s no way that anybody … can support themselves or their families on $7.25 an hour. I have always been an advocate for increasing the minimum wage, whether that be done incrementally, which is what the senate bill had foreclosed, or whether we go to a $15 minimum wage, which I’ve advocated for. I think the bottom line is we need to make sure that we’re supporting low-income people and that they do have equality in their pay.

One of the things that I’ve also fought for—women as you know are getting paid about 78 cents to the dollar compared to men, and that’s unfair and we need to level the playing field for women.

Rewire: In a recent debate, you discussed your opposition to offshore drilling and fracking, but did not condemn the proposedDominion Energy pipeline. What is your position on that?

RN: Well I’ve made my position very clear. First of all, we in Virginia need to realize and recognize that this proposed pipeline comes from West Virginia through Virginia into North Carolina. It’s an interstate project, so there are deeds and regulatory processes that we have in Virginia that I have done everything I can to make sure that we sign with transparency. I have written a letter and communicated with the [Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)] to change the process from one of a blanket permit to a site-specific permit. At the end of the day, we have to realize that [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] (FERC), which is a federal agency, will make the final decision. If the DEQ decides that it can be done safely environmentally, and using science and transparency then the pipeline will move forward. If they say no, I will support them and the pipeline won’t move forward.

Northam said in a May 2 candidate forum that he “was the one who stepped up and wrote a letter and communciated [sic] with the DEQ and recommended that rather than a blanket permit, that we have site-specific permits and because of that, they have decided to do that,” according to the Washington Post. However, since then and after this interview was conducted with Rewire the Virginia DEQ announced according to the Richmond Times that instead of issuing site-specific permits for the pipeline “it will rely on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers national permit for the hundreds of spots where the pipelines will cross waterways — a “blanket” permit for utility line activities that pipeline opponents say doesn’t do enough to safeguard some of the pristine streams along the routes from sediment that could be dislodged via construction, leveling ridgelines and tree removal, among other effects.”

It had previously suggested it would require permits for each location but a spokesperson for the DEQ told the Roanoke Times on May 24 that it had “got it wrong.”

According to the Virginia DEQ’s website, “Proposed, interstate pipeline projects are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and are reviewed by DEQ.”

But at the end of the day, the decision that FERC will make, and I don’t think that anybody in the governor or lieutenant governor’s position should take a stance that we’re going to go around the regulatory process we have in place. We need to let that play out. We need to let them do their job, and at the end of the day we will support their final conclusion.

According to a June 2017 report from the Public Accountability Initiative: “Key members of regulatory boards tasked with approving the pipeline in Virginia have backgrounds that raise conflict of interest concerns. For example, the Virginia DEQ’s Water Permitting Division Director was once a lawyer for Dominion, according to minutes from a county board meeting.”The report continues that:

“Moreover, DeSmog journalist Itai Vardi recently reported that an environmental consulting firm that FERC hired to review the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is also linked to an environmental contractor hired by the pipeline developers. Merjent was hired both by FERC as well as by Natural Resource Group, which has been working on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline since 2014. Moreover, as Vardi wrote: “eight Merjent employees currently reviewing the Atlantic Coast pipeline — more than a third of its team members for the project — previously worked for Natural Resource Group,” including Merjent’s project manager and deputy project manager.”

Rewire: What would an environmental assessment have to find for you to decide that you would not support a project like this?

RN: Well the DEQ, if they look at the permitting process and say that this is environmentally unsafe and they are not going to grant the permits, then that would stop the process. And that is the regulatory agency that we have in place in Virginia that has worked very well over the years. Again, we need to let that play out. We need to let them do their job and not sit there and try to influence their position.

Rewire: What would you say are the most critical environmental concerns that Virginia is facing?

RN: Terry McAuliffe and I announced three days ago that we’re promoting renewable energy. We’d like by 2030 to have 30 percent of our energy from renewable energy. Sea-level rise is a major concern, especially in the Hampton Roads. That’s something that I have been trying to promote a resiliency program [on]. Climate change and global warming is real. I’m a scientist, I believe in science, and we have to take these things seriously. So, what we need to do, and what I’ll do as the next governor is to continue to promote renewable energy. I’ll promote wind and solar. We have put a number of solar farms in during this past year …. We’ll continue to work with the resiliency program against sea-level rise. These are all very important things. I’ve been a leader in that area.

I would also say that I stood up against offshore drilling. I worked with President Obama’s administration to stop that. I’m very concerned with what President Trump is doing now to reverse that. I’ve also fought against fracking in Virginia. Those who know my record know that I’m an ambassador and want to be a good steward for the environment in Virginia.

Rewire: Similarly, what do you think are the greatest health challenges that are facing Virginia right now.

RN: There are three pillars to the health care. The first is quality, and we have good quality in Virginia. The second is access—something I talked about with Medicaid expansion, there are 400,000 working Virginians now who don’t have access to health care because politically the Republicans chose not to expand Medicaid. The largest challenge is the cost of health care. We have been very frugal with our Medicaid spending. We’re 47th in the country right now, and that’s because of not expanding Medicaid. And so we’re watching very closely what’s going on in Washington. If they repeal the Affordable Care Act and do what we call a block grant, Virginia is going to be in a very vulnerable position. So it is important that we have people at the table such as myself who understand health care to make sure that all Virginians have access to affordable and quality care. So that’s what I plan to do.

RN: They’d be a bad idea because Washington will say to Virginia and other states, this is what we’re going to give you to take care of your Medicaid population. And as I just said, because we’re 47th in the country, they’re going to say, well Virginia you all have done fine with this amount of funding for Medicaid. If that happens we’re going to be very vulnerable and be at risk of losing certainly millions of dollars over the upcoming years. So again, we need a doctor—we need people who understand health care at the table right now to make sure that we take care of all Virginians and make sure they have access to health care.

]]>Almost three years since lead-tainted water created a public health emergency in Flint, Michigan, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved $100 million in federal funds for the city. Residents and activists say the aid package is insufficient.

U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI), along with U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), announced the funding in a statement last week, saying this is “good news for families in Flint who have already waited far too long for their water system to be fixed.”

The money is part of the $170 million package Congress passed at the end of 2016 that activists warned wouldn’t come close to addressing the human costs associated with the manmade lead crisis.

“There’s a lot more money needed to respond to the largest public health disaster in the history of this country,” Nayyirah Shariff, director of Flint Rising, told Rewire at that time. “The human cost to this is way more than $170 million.”

“As we prepare to start the next phase of the FAST Start pipe replacement program, these funds will give us what we need to reach our goal of replacing 6,000 pipes this year and make other needed infrastructure improvements,” Weaver said. “We look forward to the continued support of the EPA and federal government.”

The EPA will immediately release $51.5 million—$20 million of which will be provided by the State of Michigan, with the rest coming from federal funds—for lead service line replacements, distribution main improvements, and corrosion control. The remaining $68.5 million in federal emergency funding will come after additional public comment and technical reviews, according to the statement.

The EPA’s state revolving fund, which help with clean-up efforts, is one of the few clean water programs the Trump administration did not slash in its proposed budget for the agency.

“After a hard-fought victory to secure $100 million in assistance last year, the City of Flint will finally begin receiving funding to repair and replace the pipes,” the Michigan congressional Democrats said in their statement. “The people of Flint are strong and resilient, and we will continue to fight for the resources and assistance they need. It’s also past time for the State of Michigan to do everything in its power to meet its responsibilities to help the city recover from this man-made crisis.”

Flint’s health crisis began when state officials switched the city’s water supply in 2014 to save money. Contaminated water from the Flint River was supplied from April 2014 to October 2015, exposing the city’s residents for almost 18 months, according to a class action lawsuit by residents seeking $722 million in damages.

Flint reverted to buying clean water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in October 2015, but the 539 days of exposure had already ruined the lead service lines, hot water tanks, and other plumbing equipment.

Last month, Flint residents told Rewire that the water in many parts of the city remains smelly, foul colored, and unsafe for drinking, cooking or bathing. The people of Flint also pay among the highest water bills in the country: Residents paid $864.32 yearly for 60,000 gallons of water in 2015, almost three times the national average.

To add insult to injury, the city is planning to shut off the water supply for those who have not paid their bills. Activists protested shutoffs at City Hall last month.

The crisis has resulted in children suffering from lead poisoning and 12 people dead from Legionnaires’ disease, according to the New York Times.

For many in the largely Black, low-income city who continue to feel the devastating effects of the crisis, this funding is too little, too late. The Trump administration’s silence on the issue has not helped allay fears that there is no end in sight to the Flint water crisis.

Karina Petri, founder of the grassroots organization Project Flint, told Rewire in a phone interview that she is concerned about the money, given Flint’s corrupt government and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s apathy about the water poisoning.

“The funding is of concern as hundreds of millions of dollars have gone missing throughout this past year, and I worry whose hands will be in charge over this money,” she said.

Petri said the city’s pipe replacement plan does not extend to the pipes in homes that have been contaminated and continue to leech lead into tap water. “What is the plan to cover costs for individual home pipe replacement?” Petri asked.

The Stabenow-Peters-Kildee agreement was signed into law by President Obama in December. Clean water activist Melissa Mays told Rewire it is high time President Trump follow it up with further action.

“I find it interesting that some branches of the media are claiming that Trump did this for us. However, Trump did promise to help us so now it’s his turn to step up and send us additional funding because 100 million dollars is just a tiny start,” she said. “I think it would be very helpful that President Trump stop rolling back environmental regulations and getting rid of the EPA. Otherwise he’s going to usher in thousands of more Flints.”

A Reuters investigation discovered thousands of areas across the country, from Fresno to Cleveland, with levels of childhood lead poisoning higher than in Flint. Reuters found almost 3,000 areas with poisoning rates far higher than that of Flint and has compiled an interactive map of lead hotspots around the nation.

“It’s a widespread problem and we have to get a better idea of where the sources of exposure are,” California Assembly Member Bill Quirk told Reuters.

Reuters found at least 29 California neighborhoods where children’s blood tests showed rates of lead exposure at least as high as in Flint. One Fresno neighborhood recorded rates nearly three times higher than Flint’s, Reuters reported.

]]>Native Nations March on D.C. to Continue Fight for Environment, Treaty Rightshttps://rewire.news/article/2017/03/08/native-nations-march-d-c-continue-fight-environment-treaty-rights/
Thu, 09 Mar 2017 00:12:32 +0000https://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=100305“This movement has evolved into a powerful global phenomenon highlighting the necessity to respect Indigenous Nations and their right to protect their homelands, environment and future generations. Now it’s time to take this to the doors of the White House.”

]]>Two weeks after the camps were cleared and drilling resumed on the controversial Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) near Standing Rock, Native nations are marching on Washington, D.C., to continue the fight for their land, water, and treaty rights.

“Nine o’clock at night and we are still here,” said Aldo Seoane, a Native activist, during a video he recorded at a tipi camp set up near the Washington Monument on Tuesday night, as part of a multi-day action planned on the National Mall. “It’s just a really good calm, peaceful feeling here, as we are getting ready to greet our relatives. I’m just … overwhelmed. Every time we come to do something like this, it’s just awesome.”

“The Native Nations Rise March on Washington is proof that the Standing Rock movement is bigger than one tribe,” reads a statement from the Stand With Standing Rock site. “It has evolved into a powerful global phenomenon highlighting the necessity to respect Indigenous Nations and their right to protect their homelands, environment, and future generations.”

Since August, tribal nations and advocates have camped out at Standing Rock to protest the proposed 1,172-mile pipeline running within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation that would transport almost 500,000 barrels of oil per day. Tribal leaders fear the pipeline could leak, which would adversely affect the Missouri River—the source of their drinking water—and disturb sacred burial sites.

Over these months the unarmed protesters, or water protectors as some call themselves, have faced militarized police and tanks in North Dakota, been teargassed and sprayed with water in sub-zero temperatures, and withstood arrests and injuries in what some say has become the largest Native movement in decades.

Last week, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and indigenous grassroots leaders announced actions in D.C. from March 7-10 to continue the momentum and take the fight to the White House. Their demands include that President Donald Trump meet with tribal leaders to discuss treaty rights, and add that consultation is not enough—tribal consent must be secured to forward projects like the DAPL.

Events include cultural workshops, speakers, and a grassroots tipi gathering—symbolic with no overnight sleeping-in—next to the Washington Monument, while indigenous leaders lobby for Native rights. The gathering will culminate in prayer and a march on Friday at 10 a.m. from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters to Lafayette Square at noon. The week of action will end with a closing ceremony on Saturday.

Keynote speakers include Dallas Goldtooth, a Keep it in the Ground organizer at the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Tara Houska, the national campaigns director at Honor the Earth.

“The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders call on our allies across the United States and around the world to peacefully march on Washington, D.C.,” reads a statement on the Native Nations Rise website.

“Now it’s time to take this to the doors of the White House,” it continues.

The current administration, which includes climate change deniers, is no friend to the environment. President Trump has signed orders to roll back former President Barack Obama’s environmental protections. He is also pushing to drastically cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and cancel several programs like the Energy Star energy efficiency program, the Clean Power Plan to cut carbon emissions, and the Environmental Justice program.

As the pipeline nears completion, Standing Rock activists and allies continue to fight for their rights, for the environment, and to hold this administration accountable.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind DAPL, began developing the $3.8 billion pipeline last spring to move domestically produced crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation to Illinois through four states. The Texas-based company’s plan to complete the pipeline by the end of last year was thwarted by the gathering protests, which stopped construction after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ denied the final easement required in early December.

The tribal victory was short-lived, however, as the Trump administration green-lighted the project in January. Shortly afterward, the Army Corps granted the easement. On Tuesday, a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction brought by the Cheyenne River Tribe to block DAPL.

“The fact remains that the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has a legal right and a moral responsibility to protect the land, water and air, not only for their tribe but for the 17 million people who live along the Missouri River and therefore protect Mother Earth,” said Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance, in an interview on BillMoyers.com conducted after the Army Corps granted the easement on February 7. “Now we have to step up the pressure and in the next days there will be actions.”

The Native Nations Rise March on Washington continues the #NoDAPL push, states a news release at the Stand With Standing Rock site.

“They want us to believe the fight is over—but we can still win this. We can unite in peaceful, prayerful resistance against this illegal pipeline,” said Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II in the release. “Now, we are calling on all our Native relatives and allies to rise with us. We must march against injustice—Native nations cannot continue to be pushed aside to benefit corporate interests and government whim.”

Several actions are planned in solidarity around the nation this week. Activist group Idle No More is marching in San Francisco on March 10 along with tribal nations; Native nations and allies plan to march on March 10 in Denver, Colorado; and a sign-waving action is planned in Kahului, Maui, on March 10. Native Nations Rise marches are also planned for March 10 in Lansing, Michigan; Phoenix, Arizona; and Providence, Rhode Island.

Worldwide events include a Netherlands action planned for March 9-11, and a March 10 march in Trondheim, Norway. Norway’s largest private investor announced last week that it was divesting from companies tied to DAPL.

A group of military veterans also vowed to continue the fight and participate in the march after protesting in North Dakota.

“We are committed to the people of Standing Rock, we are committed to nonviolence, and we will do everything within our power to ensure that the environment and human life are respected. That pipeline will not get completed. Not on our watch,” said Anthony Diggs, a spokesperson for Veterans Stand, at TheIndigenousPeoples.com.

As the Indigenous Environmental Network’s Dallas Goldtooth put it, “Come what may, they cannot extinguish the fire that Standing Rock started. It burns within each of us. So let’s rise, let’s resist, let’s thrive.”

]]>Flint Residents Seek $722 Million in Damageshttps://rewire.news/article/2017/02/03/flint-residents-seek-722-million-damages/
Fri, 03 Feb 2017 23:31:01 +0000https://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=98742It is “an undisputed fact” that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Flint “failed or refused to use corrosion control," according to a class action lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency.

]]>Fed up with the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, more than 1,700 residents have filed a class action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), demanding $722 million in damages.

The lawsuit accuses officials of “negligence … in its mishandling of the Flint Water Crisis.”

Karina Petri, founder of Project Flint, told Rewire that it is high time people took action in an almost four-year crisis that has played havoc with public health and eroded public trust.

“Perhaps legal action would force the EPA to be more transparent,” she said. “Justice for Flint is needed. Power needs to be given back to the people.”

It is “an undisputed fact” that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Flint “failed or refused to use corrosion control,” according to the lawsuit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Michigan.

Contaminated water from the Flint River was supplied from April 2014 to October 2015 and residents were “exposed to the toxic and highly corrosive” water for almost 18 months, the suit states. The water was “malodorous, tasted bad and appeared to be cloudy with floating dirt or metallic particles,” it adds.

Although Flint reverted to buying clean water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in October 2015, “the 539 days of exposure to highly corrosive Flint River water ruined the lead service lines, hot water tanks and other plumbing apparatus,” according to the lawsuit.

As of November 2016, the water delivered to Flint residents remained “unsafe to drink, use for cooking or use for bathing,” the court document states.

The EPA is not the only one to be blame, said Petri, a Milwaukee resident who began the Project Flint grassroots organization and has visited Flint more than 20 times since high levels of lead were first discovered in the drinking water.

“This is a real pandemic and it’s not just in Flint, and it’s not just lead, it’s other chemicals and the land is contaminated too,” she said.

A Reuters investigation recently found that almost 3,000 areas across the United States have lead poisoning rates far higher than Flint’s. More than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated-lead blood tests at least four times higher than Flint’s.

Petri said she and her three children use filtered and boiled water at home. The family long ago stopped using tap water for cooking or drinking.

Congressional Republicans last month quietly ended a year-long investigation into Flint’s problem, just after Obama signed a $10 billion water infrastructure bill allocating $170 million to address the lead problem there.

Petri is concerned there are economic and political reasons for not replacing the infrastructure or solving the problem and that residents will one day have to buy their drinking water from companies buying up water rights across the nation.

As the city’s infrastructure slowly undergoes repairs, recent samplings show that lead levels reportedly fell below the federal limit last month, but many remain skeptical of such claims.

“The trauma and the broken trust are real issues there and a real concern,” Petri said.

Flint resident and Flint Rising activist Melissa Mays posted photos on social media of the “many shades” of the discolored tap water, noting that the city was 1,014 days into the crisis.

“I think that it is absolutely appalling that the poisoned residents of Flint have to spend their time, energy, and money going to court to try to force the governments that failed us to do what is right,” Mays said in a message to Rewire. “Because of the government’s unwillingness to take care of the people they poisoned, we know these legal battles can take years but we are standing strong and fighting because we know Flint is worth it.

Petri noted that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) Chief of Staff Jarrod Agen is headed to Washington for a federal job under Vice President Mike Pence.

Petri added that concerns are high about what will happen next with President Trump in office after he put EPA grant funding on hold until it is reviewed. Officials later stated that funding to Flint would not be affected.

Petri is not convinced given her first-hand experience with the agency.

“I’ve attended the meetings, I’ve called the officials,” she told Rewire. “I’ve spoken to the EPA and I’ve listened to them lie. I do know that the EPA is guilty.”

But so are city officials, Snyder, and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, she added. She hopes that the lawsuit puts the spotlight on them as well.

Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier and Trump’s controversial pick to head the EPA, said recently that he did not know how much lead is safe for human consumption. The answer: none.

Meanwhile, one of the first major lawsuits filed by concerned residents in 2015 was dismissed this week, the Detroit Newsreported.

Led by Mays, the plaintiffs alleged federal constitutional and civil rights violations, due process violations, and asked for damages including medical, educational, and nutritional support for residents.

U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara dismissed the claims Thursday saying they would circumvent the Safe Drinking Water Act’s procedures, according to the Detroit News.

]]>Koch Network to Pump Hundreds of Millions into 2018 Raceshttps://rewire.news/article/2017/02/01/koch-network-pump-hundreds-millions-2018-races/
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:26:39 +0000https://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=98483The Koch network has focused on gutting state and federal regulations designed to protect the environment, pushing a range of anti-worker policies, and dismantling the country's social safety net.

]]>The Koch brothers’ vast network of conservative organizations and allies reportedly plans to spend $300 million to $400 million on policy and politics leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.

Officials from the Koch network disclosed their spending plans for looming political battles during a Saturday donor conference in California. Much of the money would be “devoted to the organization’s nationwide grassroots organization to help educate voters and hold elected officials accountable,” suggested network Spokesperson James Davis according to the Associated Press.

“We should use this as an opportunity to help us really move forward in advancing the country toward a brighter future, now, while the opportunity is available,” Charles Koch said to the donors at the event, according toTime. “We may not have an opportunity again like we have today.”

The Koch network has focused on gutting state and federal regulations designed to protect the environment, pushing a range of anti-worker policies, and dismantling the country’s social safety net.

Attendees of this weekend’s Koch event, which attracted more than 550 donors, must vow to donate at least $100,000 annually to the network.

Five Republican U.S. senators and two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives appeared at the event: Sens. Patrick Toomey (PA), David Perdue (GA), Ben Sasse (NE), Mike Lee (UT), James Lankford (OK), along with Reps. Jason Chaffetz (UT) and Marsha Blackburn (TN). Republican governors Scott Walker (WI), Doug Ducey (AZ), Bruce Rauner (IL) were also there.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday responded to the Koch network’s intent to play a role in looming political races in a series of tweets.

“You get one vote. The Koch brothers get one vote + the ability to spend $400 million to elect those who will represent the rich and powerful,” tweeted Sanders, a fierce critic of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that brought a flood of money into politics from millionaire and billionaire donors. “Democracy means one person, one vote. It does not mean billionaires buying elections.” [Tweet 1, Tweet 2]

The Kochs declined to back a presidential candidate in 2016, but nonetheless influenced state and congressional races. Just three of the Kochs’ key groups had already moved to influence races in 43 states by August 2016, according to an analysis conducted by Rewire.

With the brothers’ backing, a coalition of conservative groups raised $407 million during the 2012 presidential elections. Koch network officials reportedly confirmed over the weekend that in 2016 it had reached its $250 million spending goals for the 2016 election cycle.

Members of the Koch network publicly broke with President Trump over his recent order banning immigration and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries. “The travel ban is the wrong approach and will likely be counterproductive,” said Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch Foundation and the chair of the donor conference, according to the Washington Post.

]]>Criminal Charges in Flint Water Crisis ‘Only the Beginning’https://rewire.news/article/2016/04/20/criminal-charges-flint-water-crisis-only-beginning/
Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:33:31 +0000http://rewire.news/?post_type=article&p=89140"These charges are only the beginning and there will be more to come. That I can guarantee you,” Schuette said Wednesday at a press conference.

]]>A Flint, Michigan, judge has approved criminal charges against three government employees involved in the city’s water crisis, marking the first time officials have been brought to book since Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in January launched an investigation into the public health calamity.

The investigative team is tasked with probing possible criminal liability in the Flint water emergency, which began in April 2014 when the city switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the corrosive Flint River. That was followed by a spike in blood lead levels and other symptoms of lead poisoning in residents.

District Judge Tracy Collier-Nix on Wednesday approved felony and misdemeanor charges against two state regulators and one Flint employee, including charges of manipulating monitoring reports and the results of lead-in-water testing, and failing to require corrosion control treatment of Flint River water—a measure that scientists say would have prevented the water from eating away at lead pipes and fixtures in Flint’s aging plumbing system.

State and federal agencies have for months engaged in a protracted game of political ping-pong over who bears ultimate responsibility for allowing some 100,000 mostly low-income Black residents to consume, cook with, and bathe in lead-contaminated water, which causes, among other things, permanent neurological damage in young children.

Michael Prysby, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) district engineer, faces six criminal counts, including misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, and violation of the state’s Safe Drinking Water Act. Stephen Busch, a supervisor with the DEQ’s Office of Drinking Water, faces charges on five criminal counts related to the same violations.

Flint Utilities Administrator Michael Glasgow has been slapped with two counts: willful neglect of office and tampering with evidence.

Busch is on paid leave following suspension, and Prysby has taken another job with the state DEQ, the Associated Press reported.

A felony charge of misconduct in office carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, while conspiracy to tamper with evidence carries a maximum four-year prison term, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

“These charges are only the beginning and there will be more to come. That I can guarantee you,” Schuette said Wednesday at a press conference, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“So many things went so terribly wrong, and tragically wrong, in Flint,” he added, explaining that no one has been ruled out from investigation. “Everything’s on the table,” Schuette said.

The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the ongoing Flint, Michigan, water crisis cast doubt on Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) recent testimony.

Snyder, at a contentious March 17 hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, testified that he was working with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (D) and Washington lawmakers “to deliver the assistance our citizens deserve.” According to an April 7 letter written by committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), however, Snyder had failed to provide Weaver with his 75-point plan to address the crisis until the evening after the hearing.

Snyder also excluded Weaver from meetings with state officials who developed the plan ahead of the committee hearing, based on new documents in Cummings’ possession.

“Your actions raise grave concerns about the accuracy of your testimony,” Cummings wrote in the nine-page letter to the governor. He called on Snyder to “produce all emails, communications, and other documents relating to how you and your staff planned, developed, and released” the plan, and internal discussions about involving Weaver in the process.

An estimated 8,000 children 6 years and younger may have been exposed to the contaminated Flint water, according to a January New York Times report.

Cummings said he would take Snyder up on his recent offer to meet in Michigan—if they could also meet with Weaver, Flint City Council President Kerry Nelson, and Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), who represents Flint.

Cummings went on to criticize Snyder’s plan for falling short in addressing the widespread infrastructure problems that enabled the crisis. Weaver’s$55 million Fast Start program, which aims to replace all of Flint’s estimated 15,000 lead lines, calls on Snyder to wrangle an initial $25 million for the first phase of the program. Snyder’s plan proposes to replace 30 of the lines through Fast Start. The Republican governor’s plan does not specify funding amounts.

Chloride-heavy Flint River water corroded the city’s aging lead pipes after Snyder-appointed emergency managers, in an intended cost-saving move, switched the water source from Lake Huron to the river in April 2014. Families immediately saw signs of lead poisoning, such as hair loss, rashes, and cognitive impairments in children, but city and state officials downplayed the extent of the problem for more than a year.

Some 100,000 residents in Flint, a predominantly Black city, are still being forced to drink, cook with, and bathe their children in bottled water. The Snyder-appointed Flint Water Advisory Task Force’s final report, released March 21, found that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality “bears primary responsibility for the water contamination in Flint” and that its Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance “suffers from cultural shortcomings that prevent it from adequately serving and protecting the public health of Michigan residents.”

Cummings in his letter criticized Snyder for failing to refund payments for poisoned water. The representative also called on Snyder to reverse staffing cuts at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.

A Snyder spokesperson dismissed Cummings’ allegations, adding that the administration is in “near daily contact” with Weaver and her key staff members, according to news reports. “We received the letter almost simultaneously with the media, which hints at political finger-pointing rather than real problem solving,” the spokesperson said.

]]>For Flint’s Undocumented Community, Rumors and Confusion Amid the Water Emergencyhttps://rewire.news/article/2016/01/27/flints-undocumented-community-rumors-confusion-amid-water-emergency/
https://rewire.news/article/2016/01/27/flints-undocumented-community-rumors-confusion-amid-water-emergency/#respondWed, 27 Jan 2016 23:06:25 +0000http://rhrealitycheck.org/?p=72665Despite reports that the “no ID, no water” policy has ended, the Genesee County Hispanic/Latino Collaborative chair told Rewire that this is still a policy in some corners of Flint.

Reports emerged last week that water distribution centers in Flint, Michigan, required government-issued IDs from those seeking clean water, making it almost impossible for undocumented residents to access. Local organizations interviewed by Rewire sayundocumented Flint residents have been denied much more than clean water, including information about the water crisis in their language and access to water filters and lead testing to determine if they and their children have been poisoned.

San Juana Olivares, chair of the Genesee County Hispanic/Latino Collaborative, has been working with other local organizations through St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Flint’s Eastside, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, to raise awareness about the water crisis, as some members of the city’s undocumented community of about 1,000 are still unaware they can’t drink the city’s lead-contaminated tap water.

“All of the information sent to Flint residents about the water was in English, nothing was sent in Spanish or Arabic or Chinese,” Olivares told Rewire. “We’re canvassing the neighborhood to make people aware they can’t drink the water. As recently as Sunday, we met a family that was still drinking the water. Some people are still finding out, some only found out a week ago.”

Olivares began hearing reports as far back as September that undocumented families were being denied water filters through city programs, all of which required “valid identification.”

“This goes back much further than this month when people started to post pictures of fire department signs saying ‘ID required,’” she said. “We worked with a family that could not get a water filter in September because of their status. We even had a social worker call to see if the family could qualify for a filter, but they were asked if the parents had a valid ID or if they were U.S. citizens. When they obviously said no, they were told they didn’t qualify for a filter.”

The family ended up having to buy their own filter, which didn’t last long. They were finally able to obtain another when the National Guard arrived earlier this month. But this inconsistent response from state and federal officials has resulted in a lot of confusion among undocumented families.

“It’s very confusing to the community to be told no by some people and yes by others, and sometimes it’s the same groups giving different answers,” Olivares said.

The water crisis began when, in an effort to save money, state officials changed the source of the city’s drinking water from Lake Huron via Detroit to the Flint River in April 2014. According to reports, the city sent out notices after the switch regarding elevated levels of chemicals, but it failed to explicitly mention lead. The state Department of Environmental Quality has since admitted it didn’t add the necessary chemicals to prevent the Flint River water from corroding pipes, causing the contamination. A state of emergency was declared by Flint’s mayor in December 2015, though Gov. Rick Snyder (R) did not declare a state of emergency until this month, when the National Guard was deployed to distribute clean water and water filters.

Despite reports that the “no ID, no water” policy has ended, the Genesee County Hispanic Latino Collaborative chair told Rewire that this is still a policy in some corners of Flint. The Joint Information Center, which is handling the press related to the water crisis, told Rewire ID isn’t required by the city, but Olivares said that she received information as recently as Tuesday that IDs were still being requested at distribution centers. Olivares said she assumes the ID policy was instated because the city wanted to keep track of who received filters, and there were rumors that individuals from other cities were taking water they didn’t need from distribution centers in Flint.

In a call with Rewire Wednesday morning, Ken Cooper with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office reiterated that it’s the state and county’s position that no ID should be required to access clean water.

“Early on, there was a lot of confusion, but [requiring ID] is not our position,” Cooper said.

Water and filters aren’t the only things the undocumented community in Flint has been denied access to, according to local groups.

Health experts recommend that all of Flint’s children be treated as though they have been exposed to lead. Specifically, the city is mandating that children who live in Flint, live in a home using Flint water, or who attend school, child care, or often spend time with a caregiver in Flint to undergo a blood-lead screening test.

In Olivares’ canvassing, she informs undocumented families of symptoms they need to be aware of in case of lead poisoning, but as of right now, she said there isn’t much that can be done screening-wise for those without an ID or access to health-care services.

“This ID policy for screening is also impacting a lot of people in Flint. We have worked with a family that took their children to get screened, but because they couldn’t provide a valid ID, they were told there was nothing that could be done. Their children were not tested,” Olivares said. “What we’re working on very hard is to get a medical group to come to the church and provide testing. As of right now, there is no place in Flint where undocumented people can go for testing without a valid ID.”

Cooper told Rewire that testing “will be done on anyone who wants it,” and that work is being done to get churches the resources they need to provide testing.

“This is what I overheard, there are some conversations I’m not privy to, but when they ask for ID it’s more to get an address,” Cooper said. “From what I understand, they need an address. Why, I don’t know, I assume for reporting purposes. As long as they can provide proof of address, undocumented people should have access to testing. By this afternoon, things can change. Things are developing and evolving.”

Cooper told Rewire that on Wednesday morning the Mexican Consulate in Detroit was in touch with Genesee County sheriff’s captain expressing concerns over IDs being required to access water and other services.

“Our captain is in touch with the local press to reach out to the Hispanic community and the undocumented community to tell them we’re not checking IDs and we’re not coming after them. We’re going to make sure the churches in the area get whatever they need, we just need to know how much to get them,” Cooper said.

Undocumented communities have been forced to rely on word-of-mouth regarding the crisis, the severity of which many remain unaware of. After rumors circulated that a dead body was found in a lake, some undocumented residents simply boiled their tap water, compelling the Genesee County Hispanic/Latino Collaborative to release information in English and Spanish warning that boiling water doesn’t remove lead. (Different news reports confirm that a body was found in a Flint-area lake this past summer, but it’s impossible to know what story, if any, prompted the boiled water myth.)

Some residents believe the City of Flint understood the impact the water emergency might have on the undocumented community, including that they would likely not be able to access filters, bottled water, and testing due to lack of ID, but that they simply didn’t care.

“They know there’s a Hispanic community here, but they’ve always been underserved,” Olivares said. “There’s always a requirement in place to receive needed services. At food banks here, you have to have a valid ID or you don’t get food.” Some local food banks, including the Flint Salvation Army and the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, confirmed via phone that a valid ID is required to participate in their food programs.

The address of Flint’s Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle Church was circulated on social media as a place that provided water without requiring ID. Church deacon William Chapman told Rewire that he was confused by the ID requirement of many distribution centers.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Chapman said. “If people need water, you give it to them. I’ve seen people providing water to dogs, so why wouldn’t you give it to your fellow human beings?”